


Tick, Tock

by ellacj



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Feels, I'm Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-16
Updated: 2014-09-16
Packaged: 2018-02-17 14:31:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2312954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellacj/pseuds/ellacj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lot can change in a few ticks of the clock.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tick, Tock

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I need to stop writing feelsy oneshots, but it's really rhe only thing keeping me going in writing my long fic. Thanks for all the support, you guys!! (:

It’s a good day.

Emma finally convinced Regina to come out to the beach with her, and now here they are, strolling down the surf with their fingers laced neatly together.

“You look adorable in those pants,” Emma teases, glancing down at the tight corduroy pants Regina has chosen for the day.

“Shut up,” Regina retorts, playfully shoving Emma with her shoulder.

Emma chooses that moment to steal a kiss, meaning to land it on Regina’s cheek but instead catching her lips. Not that she’s complaining, of course. They stop walking just long enough to press their bodies together and join their lips in a chaste kiss.

Yeah, it’s a good day.

_Tick._

It’s funny, all the things that can happen in the space of a few minutes. One minute, a happy couple can be walking hand-in-hand down the beach, and the next, one can be lying dead on the ground.

_Tock._

It was Zelena.

Appearing on the beach without warning, she aimlessly releases a bolt of pure energy, enough to immediately render someone dead. And of course Regina has the misfortune to be standing in the path of that bolt. She collapses to the ground, fingers wrenching themselves away from Emma’s.

“No!” Emma shouts, falling to the ground beside her love. “No, no, no, no, _no_.” She cradles Regina’s head in her hands. “No, please, come back,” she mutters. Her voice grows more desperate with every syllable.

She can hear the seconds tick by in her head, can feel time passing more slowly than it ever has before.

“Please,” she whispers, pressing her face into Regina’s hair. She leaves a ghost of a kiss there before moving her lips to Regina’s. True Love’s Kiss can break any curse, right? It’s worth a shot.

It doesn’t work.

Zelena cackles as Emma kisses Regina again and again. “It won’t work, dear,” she says with a triumphant smirk. “True Love’s Kiss can break any curse, but there’s no curse to break. _She’s dead_.”

Rather than break down, rather than run away like she always has, Emma stands up to face Zelena. She doesn’t think. She doesn’t cast any spell. It just sort of _happens_ , the light that erupts from her fingertips, hitting Zelena square in the chest and knocking her back. “You could have been a family,” she snarls, going to stand over the witch. “She would have been good to you.” She punctuates each sentence with a blast of harsh magic, reveling in the agonized cries coming from Zelena’s throat.

But it’s Regina’s voice in her head that stops her. _You’re a hero, Emma_ , she would say. _And heroes don’t kill_. Reluctantly, Emma ceases her blows. She leans down and snatches the green pendant from Zelena’s throat and stuffs it in her pocket before going back to where Regina’s still lying on the ground.

It’s 5:28pm, according to her watch. Was it really only two minutes ago she was laughing and holding Regina’s hand and promising she’d never let go? It feels like a lifetime has passed.

Regina’s skin is still warm to the touch. Her lips are still red, eyelashes still long and beautiful. Her brown eyes are wide open in an expression of terror that will forever be immortalized on her face. Emma traces the smattering of freckles across the bridge of Regina’s nose; the ones she tries so hard to cover with makeup but Emma wishes she wouldn’t.

_Tick._

Maybe she should close Regina’s eyes.

_Tock._

But she doesn’t. She doesn’t, because that would make Regina look like she were sleeping. And she’s not. She’s dead; dead in the wake of a vengeful sister who thought she could win. “Regina,” Emma murmurs, voice creaking with the effort of speaking through the tears just beginning to leak down her face. “I don’t know if you can hear me right now. But if you can, I need something from you. I need you to pull off one last act of magic.” She takes a deep breath, reaching down to clutch Regina’s hand. “Just… don’t be dead, okay? For me, don’t be dead.”

She half-expects a reply, a correction of her grammar, _anything._ But of course one doesn’t come. Regina stays as silent as ever, red lips slightly parted in last words left unspoken.

Emma squeezes her eyes shut, lets her tears fall onto Regina’s chest. And then she says it, those words that will most surely be her undoing. “You were my strength.” She leans down and presses one last kiss to Regina’s forehead. “You _are_ my strength.” Another kiss. “You’ll always be my strength.” A kiss on the tip of a nose just starting to grow cold. “I’m never gonna forget you.” A gentle kiss to the corner of scarlet lips. “I won’t let anyone forget you.”

“Emma?” a quiet voice says from behind her. It’s Snow.

“She’s gone.” Emma’s voice breaks; her chest constricts with the two words. Saying them is to accept it. And honestly, she’s not sure she’s ready to accept it.

Snow kneels down beside Emma and rubs her back. She doesn’t say anything, just offers her presence. And right now that’s about all Emma can handle.

Slowly, the two of them stand up. “What am I gonna tell Henry?” Emma manages to say, her voice raspy and cheeks stiff from dried tears.

“Tell him that in the end she was the person he wanted her to be.”

Emma’s voice catches in her throat when she remembers that day in the mines, that day Regina said almost the exact same thing when she was ready to lay down her life in the name of the people that hated her. Emma glances down at the body at her feet one last time, drinks in the image of dark hair falling over an olive-toned cheek and tickling a nose slightly upturned at the end.

She memorizes every line of Regina’s hand, every bone she used to stroke at night when Regina was having nightmares and needed someone to comfort her. She traces with her gaze the toned leg muscles just barely visible through the tight pants, remembers those muscles rippling above her and a pair of lips parting in a silent scream as pleasure overtook her. And finally, she trails her eyes over the pair of lips she would always kiss when Regina was rambling, would always absently stroke with her thumb on lazy mornings in bed, would nip and bite at in the midst of a bruising kiss.

And whispering a final goodbye, Emma leans down to brush her fingertips down Regina’s face just to feel the bones beneath her touch just one last time. “I miss you already.” She turns away, arms crossing over her chest in a pose reminiscent of the woman who once occupied them.

Five minutes ago, Regina was holding her hand and kissing her face.

Three minutes ago, Regina was hit by a bolt of magic and killed instantly.

One minute ago, Emma felt the pain of loss she thought she escaped with Regina.

She refuses to look at the body on the ground, simply clutching herself tighter.

_Tick._

Time goes on without her.

_Tock._

The grass grows beneath her feet.

_Tick._

A bird sings a single, melancholy note.

_Tock._

It starts to rain.


End file.
